Europe: London, England

As the end of my days in Europe drew near, I had about two weeks left to plan what I wanted to do with the remaining time. For a bit I visited the idea of going to Morocco, Africa to surf near a village named Imessouane. I had the entire trip planned and was literally a click away from booking it, when I had some second thoughts and decided to go another route. The trip to Africa would have been some serious fun, and a great adventure...but with the money and time required I knew I could probably visit many more countries instead. So, first I went to Prague, Czech Republic. (Read about my trip to Prague here.) After Prague, I returned to Paris and had about ten hours before I had to leave again for my next stop: London, England.

My flight to London was around 2pm, so I left for the airport at a nice, comfortable hour for once as opposed to six in the morning or something like that. I had enough time that morning to eat a good breakfast, clean the apartment up a bit, and leave confidently knowing I hadn't needed to rush and probably didn't forget anything too important. Metro to the Roissybus again brought me to the airport and I checked in with no troubles and had a pleasant hour long flight to London Heathrow airport. Upon arrival in England I had to explain to customs why I was an American coming from Paris, but then leaving from another city and going back to Paris. She was nice and all, but in the end I ended up having to explain quite a lot for her to understand how I was doing all of this with no visas, etc. Finally I got my passport stamp and went off to find the underground trains, or the "tube" as the call it here.

A friend of mine who works at Image Metrics named Nick lives here in London and I was off to meet him in the city. I took the "Piccadilly Line" to the Piccadilly Circus stop and climbed out of the underground and into the city. My first impression was sort of a mellow, panic. There were about nine billion people around walking in all different directions, all with somewhere to be and quick. It was much like a Times Square sort of feel. I had drawn myself a map on how to find our meeting spot, but realized right away that I hadn't drawn quite enough and was pretty much lost right away. I was suppose to meet Nick at 3pm but hadn't even gotten off the train until about that time, so I was already late and had no idea where to go! My mobile phone is unusable due to not turning on international roaming yet so I couldn't call him...so finally I asked someone and he pointed me in the right direction. I was suppose to find "Soho", a lively area in London where the pub I was meeting Nick is located. A few minutes later and after asking one more guy for directions, I found the place and met up with Nick.

The first thing we did was head to a pub right on the same street named, "Crown and Two Chairmen". It was funny carrying my big suitcases into a pub, but luckily we found a back corner table against the wall where I had room to store them so they wouldn't get stolen, or forgotten after a night of drinking! We had a couple of pints there before a friend of Nick's named Joe arrived, and another guy named Mike shortly after that. Joe worked with Nick at Autodesk and Mike was a friend of Joe's who works for HP. We spent the next few hours drinking and talking, telling stories, etc. Mike has a lot of foster children so hearing stories about them was cool. He's also an avid reader and recommended some books I should read. "Why God Created The French", "The Lovely Bones", and "How The Irish Saved The World". He is Irish and spent a good bit of time telling me all about the torrential rains in Ireland and how some of the smaller villages were almost completely underwater. Doesn't sound like too much fun, you know...being underwater. As the beer kept flowing, the stories became more and more exaggerated which turned into a pretty funny memory now...we kept giving him shit all night about his whole country being underwater. A friend of all of theirs had a band who was playing in King's Cross, London so we all hopped into a taxi and made our way to a pub called, "The Cross Kings". Technically, their friend was the singer but had left the band and they now had a new singer. Apparently she didn't leave the band of her own will and had been ousted due to her traveling, so the new singer on stage was a bit of an awkward scene. It was a bit of a critique more than just enjoying it for some. The band played some decent funk music and was fun to listen too though in the end. We stayed there for another few hours until about 11:45pm and then Nick wanted to head back so we didn't miss the last train to his place.

On the way home, we managed to almost miss the train we were already on by getting off thinking it was going the wrong direction. It was going the right direction afterall, so thankfully we got onto the next one which was actually the very last one of the night...then we somehow lost the ticket on the way out and narrowly avoid a 50£ fine when the guys just got annoyed with us and let us out for free. Finally we made it off the train, and found some food at one of London's premiere Kebab shops (or so I hear anyway.) Next we stumbled onto a bus, met a guy from Montreal, and finally made it home to Nick's place where his two awesome dogs named Coby and Mojo were waiting for us. His girlfriend Kim was away for the weekend so the dogs were happy to see people after most of the afternoon alone. The couch was nice, and sleep came quickly.

The next morning I woke up to the dogs climbing all over me and a bit of barking, but feeling relatively okay considering how much beer I had put down the night before. We spent the morning relaxing and watching some European Football and planning out what to do that day. I had to budget wisely since my bank won't let me take money out anywhere but France, so if I overspent I'd be stuck with no cash. Nick had suggested I explore the South Bank area so I walked to the nearby train station and caught a train to Waterloo Station.

The South Bank is a nice area in London that is on the south side of the Thames river that runs through the city. It contains the "London Eye" as well as a good amount of museums, restaurants and markets. In fact, there were many christmas markets setup all around the area, similar to the ones I saw in Prague. Selling all sorts of trinkets, holiday gifts, great foods, beer, and loads of other things. I spent a few hours wandering through all of this, exploring the area. I came across a lot of interesting things on the way. A large group of people holding signs that read "FREE HUGS" and "PRACTICE RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS". They were a bunch of young guys and girls just giving hugs and giving out free candy, pretty cool. :) I saw some street performers dancing and singing, a couple of Mimes, and all sorts of characters performing various, random tasks to entertain the flocks of tourists walking along the banks of the Thames. Towards the center of the South Bank area is the Westminster Bridge, which when you cross it to the North side leads you to Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and all sorts of other big London sights. It was rainy quite hard so I only walked across the bridge to get an up close peak at Big Ben, and decided I'd come back for the full tour tomorrow. As it went there was a giant protest going on in the area about Global Warming and Climate Change. So many people had come to protest that they had closed half of the Westminster Bridge and there were enough people to fill up the entire thing. It was a sight to see for sure. I snapped a couple of photos with my cellphone and headed back towards Waterloo Station and the train towards Nick's place.

View From Westminster Bridge - Thames and the London Eye

Climate Change Protests on Westminster Bridge

Back at the house, I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and writing the rest of my blog post about Prague. We watched a game of Rugby which was fun, I'd never seen it played before so I learned about the rules of the game and such. Around dinner time we decided it would be cool to make some sushi for dinner, so we got some supplies at a local market and came back and made some epic salmon and creamed cheese rolls with cucumber and avocado. Not a bad home made meal! Nick is moving to the States soon and as such he cannot bring his wine collection with him. He offered to drink some since it might have to get sold or go to waste anyway, so we ended up drinking a couple of bottles of some real good wine. I wish I could remember the name of the wine...but I never can. Watched some football games and a couple of films and called it an early night.

Street Performers on the South Bank.

Christmas Markets bustling with people on the South Bank.

Even with the early night I don't think I got up until about noon. Traveling is exhausting! After a cup of coffee and a shower, we took the dogs for a walk through a nearby park and then went for some lunch at a spot called "Nando's". Then, a drink in a neighborhood pub called, "St. John's House & Secret Library". It's actually two separate pubs in the same building which is kind of interesting. Tasted a beer here called, "Tiger" which was excellent! Later on we went back to Nick's place and Kim had returned from her trip in Paris. We were introduced, chatted for a bit and then I grabbed my stuff and left for the hostel I had booked nearby.

About fifteen minutes later I was headed to the train and realized that I had forgotten to write down directions on how to get to the hostel from the train station. I knew the name of the road, and I remembered from looking at the map that it was right next to it practically so I figured I'd just find it. Mistake. I got off the train and spent about forty-five minutes looking for it before I had to admit defeat and find a map. I ended up walking up and down this one road about five times and in the process, lost my beanie (hat) that'd been in my back pocket. Noooo! I had a spare but it was back in Paris...so now I'd need to go the rest of trip in the UK without a hat. Shit! It was damn cold and I'd regret this later for sure.

Skateboarding and Graffiti area on the South Bank.

I finally made it to the hostel called, "The Walrus Waterloo". It was pretty nice looking when I walked in, a bar in the downstairs of it filled with people and in a nice area right near the South Bank and Waterloo station. I got signed in and went up to my room where I met four people from Spain! That week there was a holiday in Spain so the four of them had taken a trip to London for the week. They didn't speak a lot of English so I didn't talk to them all that much, but it was nice to meet some more people anyway. That night was kind of mellow, I spent some time wandering around the area and had a couple of beers but went to bed relatively early.

The next day was excellent. The hostel had a free continental breakfast in the morning with toast, cereal and coffee which was a perfect start to the day. I filled up, grabbed my coat and scarf and headed out for my first touristy stop of the day, Westminster Bridge. This is the same bridge the protest had been on a couple of days earlier, but now it was nice and clear. It was a bit of a cloudy day which was a shame but besides that it was a tremendous view of the surrounding areas from the bridge. When you cross the bridge to the North side of the Thames River you are met eye to eye with Big Ben, the famous clock that sits outside of the Houses of Parliament. I took some photos, enjoyed the view, sat in awe of the amazing architecture of the buildings and then moved on to the next stop, Westminster Abbey. It's amazing as you can imagine. I spent about an hour there walking around and looking at everything. I didn't have my camera unfortunately but I snapped a few pics with my cellphone.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

After the Abbey I left and kept walking North towards the Royal Parks and Buckingham Palace. The parks are absolutely stunning, they're so huge that I spent a good two hours just walking through the different areas and looking at birds, wildlife, flowers, and all the things it had to offer the passer through. When you get through the parks, you come across Buckingham Palace, where the British monarch lives. (The Queen, etc.) It was just like you'd think really, enormous, beautiful, filled with tourists and people walking around snapping photos, and those guards with the really big black furry hats who aren't allowed to talk or even acknowledge your existence. It was definitely a cool thing to see. I got lucky and happened across it right in time for the "Changing of the Guard" ceremony at the front of the palace. It's sort of a parade where the new guards march down the street and replace the guards in the front of the palace, it happens once per day. Random, but it reminded me a lot of the scene in Final Fantasy VII in the town of Juneau when the Shinra soldiers are marching down the streets. :) After seeing it all I spent another hour or so in the parks before heading back towards the hostel for a beer and some lunch. I stopped by the Christmas Markets on the South Bank on the way back for a beer and a brought-wurst German sausage. It was excellent.

Buckingham Palace

I don't even know what this crazy bird is! Anyone know?


"Great Tits" are a common sight in the Royal Parks during the colder months. Har Har.

That night, since I hadn't met anyone at the hostel I took the train back to Nick's place and had some dinner and wine with him and Kim at a restaurant called "Out of the Blue". It was unique because on Monday nights they allowed you to bring your own wine to drink as long as you paid a £3 corking fee per bottle. Nick brought along a couple of his epic wine bottles and I ordered the Mussels and chips again...a recurring theme! I've tried them now in four different countries, and...London wins. They were so, so good at this place. Anyway, dinner was fun. You can also bring your dogs with you to this restaurant so Coby and Mojo hung out under the table while we ate and drank. We talked for hours about all sorts of random things, telling stories and enjoying the wine. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I promised to help Nick and Kim move once they got into their place in the States. They had been so hospitable and nice to let me stay with them that I had to repay the favor! The train took me back to the hostel where I had a beer in the pub and went to sleep.

The next morning I caught the "tube" to London Euston Train station and got onto my train headed for the city of Bangor in Northern Wales.